Model Diagram

A week later, Du Ke turned on his phone, which he had left in the villa. Dozens of missed call reminders flooded in, along with a pile of unread messages on WeChat and QQ.

He skimmed through them. Many were from old classmates congratulating him on his paper being published in an SCI journal, with typical comments like "Take me with you," "Let me latch onto your coattails," "You've made it big," and "If you get rich, don't forget us." There were also messages from friends in structural research, also congratulating him on the SCI publication. However, judging by their generic praise, they likely hadn't actually read the Journal of Chemical Physics he had sent them.

Du Ke didn't mind. He knew he was just an undergraduate graduate from Anhui University, which was neither a 985 nor a 211 project university. With his background, who would bother reading his paper unless they had a specific reason?

Besides, not everyone could understand an English paper even if they wanted to.

In fact, Du Ke himself stumbled through his own English paper, relying on translation software.

His primary goal in publishing the paper, besides showing off, was to clarify the ownership of the Long-Haired Battery—now officially named the electron flow battery—and to attract investors. So, as long as the general public, whether sincerely or perfunctorily, praised him as amazing, he would be content. What he cared about was the reaction from people within the industry.

"Hello, Professor Tao? It's Du Ke."

The call connected. It was morning, and Professor Tao Xun had just finished his class. He quickly started chatting with Du Ke. "Your three papers have received quite a positive response. Several experts and professors in China have already contacted the Journal of Chemical Physics, expressing great interest in your electron flow theory. Some have even indicated they want to conduct further research... Check your email first; they should have sent you messages."

Receiving positive feedback from Professor Tao, Du Ke breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worrying about his papers during his week in the Fantasy World.

Sometimes he imagined a sudden breakthrough, like Cao Yuan discovering magic angle graphene and becoming a scientific figure of the year. Other times, he worried his work would be ignored, gathering dust like most papers. He also wondered if his fourth paper had even begun the review process at Physical Review B, and whether it would be accepted or rejected. Occasionally, he thought about his future paper plans.

In short, establishing himself in the academic world depended heavily on making the electron flow theory well-known.

He opened his email.

Indeed, he had received many emails. After filtering out advertisements and spam, he found six emails with clear senders. He clicked on one at random. The sender was the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics—the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Isn't that the organizing unit for the Journal of Chemical Physics?" Du Ke knew about the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics. After all, the Journal of Chemical Physics was sponsored by the Chinese Physical Society and co-organized by Xiake University and the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics. Its editorial board consisted of professors from Xiake University or researchers from the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics, with many holding positions at both institutions.

So, receiving an email from Chen Yankai, an associate researcher at the Bincheng Institute of Chemical Physics, wasn't unusual.

"Associate researcher, hmm, equivalent to an associate professor," Du Ke mused as he began reading the email. It wasn't long. Chen Yankai stated that after reading Du Ke's three papers, she was deeply inspired and found the electron flow theory very interesting. She had some ideas she wanted to explore further and hoped to collaborate with Du Ke on researching the electron flow theory, ideally through mutual discussion.

The gist was: the electron flow theory is good, and she's decided to jump on board.

It was, in a way, "research competition."

Just like when Cao Yuan's discovery of magic angle graphene was published, and within months, researchers from various institutions published important papers, joining the research into magic angle graphene. A good idea was crucial, but often the person who truly achieved significant results wasn't the one who first had the idea. It was too difficult to blaze a trail alone.

But...

Du Ke felt he was that kind of monster, destined to blaze the trail for electron flow theory by himself.

Of course, this didn't stop him from welcoming other researchers to join and champion the electron flow theory. He replied to Chen Yankai: "Welcome, Researcher Chen. The electron flow theory is my nascent concept. I am very pleased to receive recognition from fellow colleagues. I hope we can discuss and learn from each other in the future to jointly promote the electron flow theory."

The subsequent emails were similar in content. There were professors from universities of chemical engineering, researchers from institutes, and even a doctoral student.

However, overall, they were from relatively unknown individuals, with no industry heavyweights involved.

After reading the emails, he opened the website of the Journal of Chemical Physics and found his first paper. He clicked on it to view the readership and engagement statistics. The website provided a model diagram that showed real-time readership, categorized into three groups: those who only read the abstract, those who read the full text, and those who downloaded the document.

The meaning of each category was clear: reading only the abstract indicated a lack of interest.

Reading the full text signified interest.

Downloading the document suggested a high probability of conducting research, which meant that if that person actually researched and published a paper, Du Ke's paper would gain a citation.

The impact factor of an SCI journal was based on citation counts. The Journal of Chemical Physics had an impact factor of only 0.4 last year, meaning each paper was cited an average of 0.4 times.

"The ratio here is a bit skewed. Nearly 290 people only read the abstract! Less than 80 read the full text, and only about 15 downloaded it... Looking at other papers, the ratio of abstract-only readers to full-text readers is usually around two to one. Mine isn't even three to one. However, the download ratio is decent. Does this mean that those who read the full text are somewhat interested in researching it?"

Du Ke thought about it and clicked on his second paper.

He scrolled directly to the model diagram. This time, the number of abstract-only readers was much lower, around 120. However, the number of people who read the full text was still around 70-80, and the number of downloads even increased to 17.

Then came the third paper.

The number of abstract-only readers was even lower, just breaking the 100 mark. More than 70 people read the full text, and 16 downloaded it.

"This ratio is pretty good!" Du Ke realized. "The high number of abstract-only readers for the first paper must have been drawn in by the recommendation. Once they read the abstract and found it wasn't to their taste, they left. But those who were willing to read on essentially read all three of my papers at once. Especially the download numbers, which remained almost consistent, indicating that about 15-16 people are interested in researching it!"

The number of downloads didn't directly equate to citations, as research and publication were still required.

But as long as one person completed the research and published a paper, Du Ke would gain another citation.

"However, the geographical distribution of readers is so uneven. 85% are from China, and only a small portion are from abroad, scattered across places like Bulgaria and Argentina. Oh, and there's a US here, presumably America." After analyzing the readership numbers, Du Ke started examining the geographical distribution, especially since the Journal of Chemical Physics was a global SCI journal.

The results seemed to be mostly domestic, a case of "exporting to import."

Du Ke even maliciously speculated, "These readers from Bulgaria, Argentina, and the US... aren't they perhaps local Chinese? Do foreigners really not care about the Journal of Chemical Physics?"